Togo

The national flag of Togo consists of five horizontal stripes, alternating between green and yellow, with a red square bearing a five-pointed white star in the canton. It is one of many African flags that use the pan-African colours of green, yellow, and red. Togolese artist Paul Ahyi designed the flag in 1960, just before its adoption on 27 April of that year, coinciding with Togo's proclamation of independence. When Togo was an autonomous republic within the French Union, it flew a green flag with the French tricolour in the canton and two five-pointed yellow stars, one in the lower hoist and one in the upper fly.

Togolese artist Paul Ahyi (1930–2010) was the designer of the flag. Ahyi studied art in France and graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris in 1959 before returning to Togo. The following year, he designed the flag of Togo, which was adopted upon the country's proclamation of independence on 27 April 1960. The design of the flag is outlined in Title I, Article 3 of the Constitution of Togo, 1992 (2019 revision). It states: The proportions of the flag are not mentioned in the constitution and sources differ as to the exact ratio. American vexillologist Whitney Smith, writing in the Encyclopædia Britannica, stated that the width-to-length ratio is approximately 3:5. Polish vexillologist Alfred Znamierowski meanwhile stated that the ratio is 2:3. It has also been claimed[according to whom?] that Ahyi followed the golden ratio (represented by the Greek letter phi, 𝜑) when designing the flag, which would make it a golden rectangle. In other words, its width-to-length ratio would be 1:𝜑, where 𝜑 = ⁠1+√5/2⁠ ≈ 1.618. The flag uses the pan-African colours of green, yellow, and red, which were adopted by several other African countries upon independence.…